You cannot understand the Left if you do not understand that leftism is a religion. It is not God-based (some left-wing Christians’ and Jews’ claims notwithstanding), but otherwise it has every characteristic of a religion. The most blatant of those characteristics is dogma. People who believe in leftism have as many dogmas as the most fundamentalist Christian.

One of them is material equality as the preeminent moral goal. Another is the villainy of corporations. The bigger the corporation, the greater the villainy. Thus, instead of the devil, the Left has Big Pharma, Big Tobacco, Big Oil, the “military-industrial complex,” and the like. Meanwhile, Big Labor, Big Trial Lawyers, and — of course — Big Government are left-wing angels.

And why is that? Why, to be specific, does the Left fear big corporations but not big government?
The answer is dogma — a belief system that transcends reason. No rational person can deny that big governments have caused almost all the great evils of the last century, arguably the bloodiest in history. Who killed the 20 to 30 million Soviet citizens in the Gulag Archipelago — big government or big business? Hint: There were no private businesses in the Soviet Union. Who deliberately caused 75 million Chinese to starve to death — big government or big business? Hint: See previous hint. Did Coca-Cola kill 5 million Ukrainians? Did Big Oil slaughter a quarter of the Cambodian population? Would there have been a Holocaust without the huge Nazi state?

Whatever bad things big corporations have done is dwarfed by the monstrous crimes — the mass enslavement of people, the deprivation of the most basic human rights, not to mention the mass murder and torture and genocide — committed by big governments.

How can anyone who thinks rationally believe that big corporations rather than big governments pose the greatest threat to humanity? The answer is that it takes a mind distorted by leftist dogma. If there is another explanation, I do not know what it is.

Religious Christians and Jews also have some irrational beliefs, but their irrationality is overwhelmingly confined to theological matters; and these theological irrationalities have no deleterious impact on religious Jews’ and Christians’ ability to see the world rationally and morally. Few religious Jews or Christians believe that big corporations are in any way analogous to big government in terms of evil done. And the few who do are leftists.
That the Left demonizes Big Pharma, for instance, is an example of this dogmatism. America’s pharmaceutical companies have saved millions of lives, including millions of leftists’ lives. And I do not doubt that in order to increase profits they have not always played by the rules. But to demonize big pharmaceutical companies while lionizing big government, big labor unions, and big tort-law firms is to stand morality on its head.
There is yet another reason to fear big government far more than big corporations. ExxonMobil has no police force, no IRS, no ability to arrest you, no ability to shut you up, and certainly no ability to kill you. ExxonMobil can’t knock on your door in the middle of the night and legally take you away. Apple Computer cannot take your money away without your consent, and it runs no prisons. The government does all of these things.
Of course, the Left will respond that government also does good and that corporations and capitalists are, by their very nature, “greedy.”

To which the rational response is that, of course, government also does good. But so do the vast majority of corporations, private citizens, church groups, and myriad voluntary associations. On the other hand, only big government can do anything approaching the monstrous evils of the last century.
As for greed: Between hunger for money and hunger for power, the latter is incomparably more frightening. It is noteworthy that none of the twentieth century’s monsters — Lenin, Hitler, Stalin, Mao — were preoccupied with material gain. They loved power much more than money.

And that is why the Left is much more frightening than the Right. It craves power.

— Dennis Prager, a nationally syndicated columnist and radio talk-show host, is author of Still the Best Hope: Why the World Needs American Values to Triumph (http://www.nationalreview.com/redirect/amazon.p?j=0061985120). He may be contacted through his website, dennisprager.com (http://www.dennisprager.com/).

How is he defining "left"? FDR? Obama? Ford/Nixon/Bush I? Because none of those figures, even is they are liberal by today's conservative standards, deserve to be lumped in with Mao, Stalin or Hitler.

I consider myself to be a liberal capitalist, who supports a certain amount of government regulation in business to protect consumers, investors and employees from irresponsible business practices. If people are harmed because a company's practices violates those rules, then that company should have to pay damages to those it harmed. I don't fear corporations, I just expect my government to enforce the rules, encourage fairness, and punish those who take advantage of those who do follow the rules.

I would hope the author remembers that it wasn't a liberal who coined the phrase "military-industrial complex", nor who issued that warning about the dangers of said complex. Although compared to today's average conservative politician, Ike was pretty liberal.

Wibbins

05-23-2012, 11:49 AM

How is he defining "left"? FDR? Obama? Ford/Nixon/Bush I? Because none of those figures, even is they are liberal by today's conservative standards, deserve to be lumped in with Mao, Stalin or Hitler.

I consider myself to be a liberal capitalist, who supports a certain amount of government regulation in business to protect consumers, investors and employees from irresponsible business practices. If people are harmed because a company's practices violates those rules, then that company should have to pay damages to those it harmed. I don't fear corporations, I just expect my government to enforce the rules, encourage fairness, and punish those who take advantage of those who do follow the rules.

I would hope the author remembers that it wasn't a liberal who coined the phrase "military-industrial complex", nor who issued that warning about the dangers of said complex. Although compared to today's average conservative politician, Ike was pretty liberal.

I'm pretty sure that a free market is not the lassiez-faire of old, nor are any free market advocates demanding it. What we ask for is that the government stop regulating every little aspect of the businesses, regulations like clean running water, sanitation requirements, requiring chemicals to be disposed of safe and proper, etc. are the things we do want regulated; basically, if it has nothing to do with safety it should be looked at on an individual basis.

I don't fear businesses, I don't fear government, what I do fear is monopolistic corporations, and overbearing government controlling my life, i.e the epa BANNED a certain over-the-counter inhaler for asthma because it was hurting the ozone or some bullshit.

I also don't like it when the government bails out bad decisions, it's like my parent's have been bailing out my brother ever since THEY kicked him out years ago for not obeying their rules, while I was the one that was trying to make the right decisions I ended up in my own little world. The funny part is that he never learned from his mistakes, my dad would paid 6months of my bro's rent and but when i asked for H.S lunch money! and later tuition money he gave a big sigh and had an angry look on his face.... Just a few months ago they finally told him he's responsible for his own mistakes, and I believe he's in a commune somewhere in MO, but I hear he's doing much better which is great heh

The moral of that is BAILING OUT BAD DECISIONS ONLY REWARDS THE BAD DECISION MAKERS! I wonder what would have happened if the companies that didn't give subprime loans had got a bunch of dollars to buy out the mortgages for mere pennies on the dollar from the banks that were crumbling to dust, I bet those local credit unions would have willingly dropped the mortgage costs/rates because they're all about the community.

Gina

05-23-2012, 12:15 PM

My daughter's prescription Al-buterol inhaler was changed some time back because the delivery system was depleting the ozone layer. :rolleyes:

She says it works ok but I thought about hair spray. I remember when they had a big to-do about the ozone layer then. I wonder whose job it is to worry about the ozone layer? Who gets paid to do that? :biggrin-new:

Link about the inhaler (http://www.fda.gov/Drugs/ResourcesForYou/Consumers/QuestionsAnswers/ucm077808.htm)

noonwitch

05-23-2012, 02:48 PM

[QUOTE=Gina;504698]My daughter's prescription Al-buterol inhaler was changed some time back because the delivery system was depleting the ozone layer. :rolleyes:

She says it works ok but I thought about hair spray. I remember when they had a big to-do about the ozone layer then. I wonder whose job it is to worry about the ozone layer? Who gets paid to do that? :biggrin-new:

Link about the inhaler (http://www.fda.gov/Drugs/ResourcesForYou/Consumers/QuestionsAnswers/ucm077808.htm)[/QUOTE

I don't see a lot of people using areosol hair spray anymore. I'm sure they still make it, little old ladies still need it. I don't think they use the same chemical propellent that they used in the past-like AC systems in cars don't use freon anymore.

Odysseus

05-23-2012, 03:16 PM

How is he defining "left"? FDR? Obama? Ford/Nixon/Bush I? Because none of those figures, even is they are liberal by today's conservative standards, deserve to be lumped in with Mao, Stalin or Hitler.

I consider myself to be a liberal capitalist, who supports a certain amount of government regulation in business to protect consumers, investors and employees from irresponsible business practices. If people are harmed because a company's practices violates those rules, then that company should have to pay damages to those it harmed. I don't fear corporations, I just expect my government to enforce the rules, encourage fairness, and punish those who take advantage of those who do follow the rules.

I would hope the author remembers that it wasn't a liberal who coined the phrase "military-industrial complex", nor who issued that warning about the dangers of said complex. Although compared to today's average conservative politician, Ike was pretty liberal.

Woodrow Wilson certainly fit the bill. He imposed socialism in the US, not to mention segregation of the federal government, and while FDR wasn't a communist, his cabinet included more than a few of them.